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DhiaDuit · August 5th 13, 05:35 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

On Monday, August 5, 2013 10:15:45 AM UTC-5, D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 8/5/13 24:37 , wrote:

This is probably the biggest problem in most advanced countries today- young people cannot do /make anything . Very disturbing, to say the least....

Industry has wanted this for generations. The individual buys what

she/he cannot build. Prices can rise, warranties can be revised. And the

whole tenor of Customer Service can be dumbed down to "Policies" and

procedures read from a computer screen.

Heath, Dyna, and their like and kind in kit form are gone. Even

Hafler were products built with parts and circuit designs from David

Hafrler's Dyna days, and many of the manuals were reprints of Dynaco

manusals with a new logo and front page.

Convenience, higher wages, and lower costs of production have made

kits, and a lot of DIY obsolete.

Even DIY at the Home Depot is backed up by a league of installers who

can drop a new cartridge for a water faucet in place for you. Codes,

government permit policies, and oversight in your own home have made

much of DIY repair impractical. In some developments, DIY is not

permitted by CC&R's. Even painting your own home must be done by

approved conractors. Often at elevated prices.

And state law has facilitated much of this. Here in the Land of

Lincoln, any new construction project, condominium, housing development,

and subdivision MUST, by law, have a homeowner's association in place

before construction may begin. And CC&R's must be approved by an

oversight committee answering to the State.

So, we become serf's to the contracting and construction trades. We

become serfs to plumbers, electricians. Painters. And even lawn

maintenance contractors.

And doing things for ourselves....well that becomes a case of

atrophy. A thing no exercised wastes away.

Science and Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated magazines, I used to snail mail subscribe to them untill they went belly up. I started snail mail subscribing to Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines back in the 1950s, I still get them in my snail mail box each month. You can read those archived magazines on the Internet. One time when I was in Florida at a junk shop that used to be a gas station I bought two cardboard boxes of old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines, some of those magazines date back to 1911.